Washington County Commissioners end fight to stop reassessments

Top 10 local Washington County stories of 2013

December 27, 2013

Katie Roupe/Observer-Reporter
Washington County Commissioners Diana Irey Vaughan, Larry Maggi and Harlan Shober talk about the decision to hire Tyler Technologies to do the reassessment of Washington County properties. The property reassessment is the first since 1981 and will not go into effect until July 1, 2016.

Although they fought court battles for five years, Washington County Commission Chairman Larry Maggi announced in August that he and his colleagues on the three-member board had “run out of options” and were ready to award a $6.9 million contract to Tyler Technologies of Moraine, Ohio, to conduct a reassessment of all real estate in the county in more than 30 years.

The first team of data collectors fanned out in Washington’s Fifth Ward neighborhood in September.

The Washington and McGuffey school districts took their demand for a reassessment to Washington County Court in 2008, and the matter went back and forth between county court, Commonwealth Court and the state Supreme Court. Had the commissioners chosen not to reassess, they would have been facing a contempt-of-court hearing.